My Turn: Scott Turner: A harvest along city sidewalks

Thursday

Where I live in Providence, there are three mature black walnut trees loaded with green-husked nuts. From what I’ve witnessed in past years, most of that fruit will end up in the gutter this fall.

After the first frost, I hope to collect and shell some of those walnuts. It’s an extensive process to remove the husks, clean and crack the shells, and extract the nutmeat. Once you’re done it, however, you’re rich in yummy walnuts.

But, I get ahead of myself. From the first tree and shrub fruits of the growing season, which were Autumnalis cherries in late May, followed by shadbush berries in early June, this has been a bountiful year for fruit dangling over or falling onto sidewalks and streets of the city.

In late June, neighbors said I could pick from their-sidewalk-stretching raspberry bushes, and I did.

Mulberries, juicy, sweet, and almost black in color were abundant early in July. I plucked fruit from weed trees that also fed robins, starlings and cedar waxwings.

In the second half of July, I devoured blackberries from canes that snaked over sidewalks. I also ate a few black cherries too. They tasted more acidic than anything else, but I liked them in small doses.

Peaches ripened on one squirrel-ravaged tree in August. These were small, mostly stone fruits, often wormy, but fuzzy, juicy and sweet.

August also brought red plums, covering three street trees. For weeks, the fruits went unpicked, collecting on sidewalks and streets. I gathered several solid specimens. So sweet, each tasted like a spoonful of sugar.

At least two neighbors grow sidewalk-hugging beach plums, which are little trees. This was a plentiful year for the little purple sweet and sour plums, no bigger than small grapes. So far, I’ve consumed about two dozen, most recently sharing a tree with a migratory gray catbird.

Presently, I am also devouring Cornelian cherries from sidewalk shrubs. The somewhat thick, maroon-colored, olive-shaped fruit is quite sour. Also ready for harvest are pears from two street trees. Those that are not mushy deliver a juicy floral sweetness.

Soon to ripen will be apples. In my neighborhood, they also fall uncollected and uneaten. The apples are more sour than sweet. Still I will munch on a few.

I am also waiting for the little, purplish fruits of a black gum street tree to ripen. These fruits are fleshy, thin-skinned, sour, and mostly pit. Typically, black gum fruits mature by now. It’s a late season for them.

In October, paw-paw will ripen, and I hope my neighbor, who tends a sidewalk-side tree, will share one or more of the somewhat-mango-looking green fruit. The off-white, juicy, squishy and delicate custard-like pulp is delicious!

Once the harvest of fleshy fruit subsides, walnuts will thud to the pavement. I plan to cart home selected nuts for the laborious but profitable process of removing the meats. By then it will be cold outside, and I will need something to keep me busy indoors.